1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dishwasher, and more particularly, to a button assembly of a dishwasher for a user to input commands with, in order to control the operation of the dishwasher.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, dishwashers are convenient kitchen appliances that clean and remove food deposits from dishes using high-pressure streams of water and detergent, and also dry the dishes afterwards.
A dishwasher typically has a control panel, located on its frontal portion, including a button assembly for entering operation commands and an LED (light emitting diode) display for showing the operation mode. A user presses the buttons on the control panel to enter operational commands.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a button assembly in a control panel of the prior art.
Referring to FIG. 1, the button assembly of the prior art includes a front panel 10 and a plurality of buttons 20 installed at the back of the front panel 10. The front panel 10 includes a button window 11, allowing a user to press the buttons 20 inserted through the button window 11.
In addition, attached to the rear of a button 10 are a leaf spring 30 having a predetermined elasticity, and a fastening screw 40 fastening the button 20 and the leaf spring 30 in one unit to the rear of the front panel 10.
Accordingly, when a user presses a button 20, the leaf spring 30 flexes, and when the user releases the button 20, the tension in the leaf spring 30 causes the button 20 to return to its original position.
In this button assembly of the prior art, not only is an individual leaf spring required to maintain spring tension for each button, but a fastening screw is also required to fasten each spring to each button.
Because each button needs to be installed with its own leaf spring and fastened with its own fastener, the number of parts needed to form the button assembly increases, and the assembly process is unnecessarily complicated.